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Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Islamist Trojan Horse

By Ali Salim - Gatestone Institute

First, the "closest enemy" must be destroyed, the leaders of Arab
countries aligned with the West; after that, the "distant enemy", the
Christian West. The masses of the Middle East thirst for the quality of
life in the West as they see it through the media; the Islamist leaders
desire the total alienation of their citizens from the West.

With every Middle East country at each other's throat, the
Arab-Muslim world is uncertain of its fate. Some of its totalitarian
regimes were toppled in the so-called Arab Spring but they have yet to
be replaced by stable governments; the battle for the future of the
Middle East is still being fought. The real question is whether the
young people, representatives of moderate Islam and secular Arabs who
initiated the Arab Spring, will be able to keep the region from being
taken over by Islamists seeking to promote their own agendas, and to
prevent it from being engulfed by a fundamentalist form of Islam.
Radical Islam may have been weakened but it is still a force. The
revolution of the young reformists against the Shah of Iran was
exploited by the Shi'ite Ayatollahs to take control of Iran. Turkey's
democratic government was overthrown as Erdogan established himself as
its Islamist dictator. In the Palestinian Authority-administered
territories, Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, rose up against
the PA, took over the Gaza Strip, and now eyes the West Bank and awaits
the chance to pounce. Islamists almost took over Egypt, but praise to
Allah (S.W.A.T.), were defeated at the last moment. Fortunately, the
Muslim Brotherhood regime of Mohamed Morsi was terminated by the
Egyptian army, commanded by the Minister of Defense, Gen. Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi.
Past experience has shown that as soon as the Islamists are in
control they change the democratic laws and institutions that allowed
them to gain power; they are no longer interested in change or willing
to accept opposition of any sort. It soon becomes clear that they cannot
solve their country's problems; their only desire is to exercise
complete political and religious control, and the desperate, faltering
masses continue to suffer as before. Eventually, with no help in sight,
some will turn to more extreme forms of Islam, praying to Allah
(S.W.A.T.) to save them from their hopeless plight, while others,
disappointed by the Islamist regime, will abandon religion altogether.
Exposed by the media to the achievements of the West, the masses of
the Middle East thirst for change and desire the quality of life enjoyed
by the rest of the world. The Islamist movements, on the other hand,
especially those that grabbed political power, desire the total
alienation of their citizens from the West. Progress, freedom, human
rights, a thriving economy, security and democracy are all trademarks of
a competing religion, Christianity, while the Arab and Muslim world,
despite its oil, land and water, remains mired in the shifting sand
dunes of backwardness and reaction.
The values of the Judeo-Christian world and the attendant success of
its economies and societies threaten the foundations of the Islamic
faith and its universal mission, which to us feels as if it has failed,
lags behind the rest of the world and deals only in bloodshed. From an
Islamic point of view, such a failure is completely unacceptable. In
addition, the mere existence and economic and military success of the
Jewish State of Israel and what can be seen on television as its genuine
democracy present a terrible challenge to radical Islam: for Islam, the
Jews are not a nation but a collection of bits and pieces that have no
right to a state of their own, to be condemned to eternal division and
humiliation for rejecting the words of Allah (S.W.A.T.). Islam
represents the one and only true, relevant and timely religion; there is
no need for any other.
Therefore, as far as radical, fundamentalist Islam is concerned, the
success of the West in general and of the Jews and Israel – the West's
"imperialist branch" – in a flourishing state in the heart of the Middle
East, all seem to contradict and cast into doubt the mission and
rightness of Islam. The success of the West is unbearable, so the
Islamists have declared a war to the death against it and against
Israel.
The Islamic agenda demands that infidels and other enemies be dealt
with summarily. First the "closest enemy" must be destroyed, in this
instance, the leaders of the Arab countries aligned with the West. After
that it is possible to go further afield and destroy the "distant
enemy," the Christian West. In effect, the various Islamist terrorist
organizations operate on two fronts, subversion and terrorism in the
West, and internecine bloodshed as they attack the regimes in the Arab
states where they blow up each other's worshipper-filled mosques, kill
the aged and infants, and rape indiscriminately, all in the name of
Allah.
Until now the plutocratic Islamic monarchs of the Arabian Peninsula
had a certain security, based on both the tribal tradition demanding
obedience to the ruler and on a series of Islamic decrees, issued
expressly for the purpose of reinforcing the tradition. Now, however,
the monarchs have become aware of the danger. The deprived masses of the
Gulf are also exposed to Western media and are aware that the rulers of
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to name two, are in fact ruthless dictators who
keep the country's resources for themselves and do not share their
wealth with the people.
The plutocratic monarchs now fear the outbreak of the Arabian Gulf
Spring. They are cognizant of the unrest among their exploited,
casteless residents, those who do the humblest jobs and have neither
rights nor nationality. Like the Islamists, they seek to turn back the
clock to the seventh century, when the stability of their regimes was
founded on belief in the Sharia, the Qur'an, and the blind obedience to
the ruler they demand as a tenet of faith. The monarchs' common
interests gave rise to a policy of compensation and distancing, as well
as a mutual assistance pact with the Islamist terrorist organizations,
with whom they hope to neutralize domestic unrest by sending terrorist
operatives to distant countries.
That plan also resonates with the Islamist ideologues, who seek to
attack and expand to the West. The monarchs are double agents: on the
one hand, they seek the protection of the West, especially the United
States, against the Iranian threat. They exploit America's economy and
security for their own benefit, while they finance the Islamist
terrorist organizations operating against the West. Saudi Arabia and
Qatar, again, work covertly to achieve two objectives: one is to support
the terrorist organizations by financing subversive and terrorist
activities to destroy the Western way of life by subjecting it to
Islamic rule. The other is to export the terrorists and their
collaborators to other countries, ensuring domestic peace, tranquility
and little local opposition.
The monarchs therefore sabotage conciliation with the West, and do
their utmost to weaken it to facilitate Islam's takeover of Europe and
America. The Islamist operatives in the West concentrate their
activities on the immigrant population there, by exploiting the freedom
of speech and movement inherent in Western democracy.
In the meantime, Islam is destroying itself. The Islamist movements
are up to their necks in mutual slaughter. The Islamist machines of
terrorism and destruction, with the generous support of Arab oil
exporters attack the sources of American and Western power in the Middle
East and Africa, in the belief that the way to overcome America is
through subversion, by taking over the sources of energy; thus they try
to destroy America's power bases in the Middle East.
Alongside the construction of an Islamic community that grows ever
more numerous, powerful, united and influential, the Islamist ideologues
are working to weaken "Crusader America." They focus their attacks on
their prime target, Israel, which they perceive as America's front line
and mainstay in the Middle East. To that end they enlist any agent of
influence they can find. Such agents are chosen with great skill and
sophistication from within the American Jewish community, a tiny number
of whose members regard Israel as a nuisance to their daily routines,
businesses and integration into American society. Some of them regard
Israel as threatening their future lives as Americans; others seem
convinced that to work against Israel's stated interests is the best way
to help Israel and save it from itself. These agents of influence, who
claim to work in the name of morality and humanity, and who have been
fed a steady diet of denial and rejection, are taught to represent
Israel as an immoral, apartheid country enforcing an "occupation" on a
destitute indigenous population, and to challenge its very existence.
They persistently ignore the horrors and atrocities perpetrated against
civilians in the Arab and Muslim world which cannot, under any
circumstances, be compared to the steps taken to defend oneself against
terrorism.
The comprehensive Arab-Islamic effort, also inspired by Western
Christian anti-Semitism, is based on the assumption that the Jewish
community has disproportional influence on the American administration,
and that the administration is in fact pro-Israel. Thus, by using Jewish
front men, Islamist operatives and their collaborators invest enormous
effort in dividing the Jewish community and creating a pro-Arab spin
among its members.
The result is that these anti-Israeli agents, recruited from within,
call for Israel to be disarmed of nuclear weapons they say it possesses;
and support the Palestinians in their demands – including the "right of
return" of the Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel – which
would severely weaken American interests in the region. The influence of
J Street and some of Hillel's activities have damaged the famous
influence of the Jewish lobby on the Obama administration's policies.
In their efforts to attack the "distant enemy," on the other hand,
operatives of the Islamist movements act with great clarity, skill and
success to extend their control and influence in the West and the United
States, despite their internal bloodletting. The Islamist ideologues
and da'wah [outreach] preachers exploit the Islamic enclaves in
Europe and the United States, creating within them networks of
collaborators for funding, terrorism and espionage. Their operatives use
moderate terminology and pretense to create a lobby representing itself
as "seeking peace." They found committees for harmonious interfaith
relations whose only objective is to mislead, while da'wah preachers incite their followers against America and Israel, raise funds and recruit terrorist operatives. Zakat
[tithed] money, laundered as "donations to charity organizations," are
smuggled into the Middle East to finance terrorist activities.
Islamist operatives strive to recruit key figures in Europe and the
United States and either to convert them to Islam, or to use them as
agents of influence to promote Islamist interests. Recruiters are also
active in prisons, especially with black inmates. The recruiters exploit
the prisoners' sense of discrimination and deprivation, and lie to them
about the "equality" they will find in Islam; in reality, Muslims in
the Arabian Peninsula refer to blacks as a'bid, "slaves."
The Gulf states spend enormous amounts on the Islamists in the West,
financing their social activities and research funds, buying university
chairs and founding libraries and universities. They acquire people with
influence, recruit lecturers and students, rewrite history and fashion
the America of the future. Qatar, a sponsor of the murderous Muslim
Brotherhood, brought Al-Jazeera TV to the United States. Al-Jazeera
broadcasts pure propaganda and does not adhere to any of the parameters
of responsible journalism, and its only objective is eventually to
brainwash the American public with the Islamist agenda. Thus, by using
legitimate means, and America's freedom of expression, the Muslim
Brotherhood has evaded security filters and infiltrated a genuine Trojan
Horse of subversive propaganda through open gates directly into
America's hearts and minds.